L’Amour Mere Natalie, Lyublyu and C Love

L’Amour Mere is a project that was created by actress Natasha Gregson Wagner in memory of her mother, Natalie Wood. Now I have been a fan of both for years so I purchased the set of samples and promptly let them sit. Because, well, what if I hated them? It isn’t like Gregson Wagner is Givaudon, she is obviously doing this as a project to celebrate the memory of her mother in a very personal way. On the other hand she isn’t (as far as I know) whipping these up in her kitchen either. So the box has been sitting there, staring balefully at me. Or would be if a box could stare.

By Jack Mitchell, CC BY-SA 4.0,

You can read the story behind the scents here and I won’t comment upon it other than to state that both she and her mom are clearly people like us: Ms. Wood apparently preferred Jungle Gardenia and lots of it, which makes me love her, if possible, even more. Ms. Gregson Wagner seems to be someone who enjoys scent in the way that we fume heads can understand: the scent of flowers, church incense, honey in herb tea. How everyday smells can transport and comfort, and even be bittersweet.

But rather than bore you with my petty ramblings lets get onto the juice.

C Love is a rose scent. A pure one and just the way I like rose scents to be. Slightly retro, with a big cabbage rose accord that seems to have fallen out of fashion these days. It’s not paired with cumin or motor oil or anything else that makes is “edgy.” It is a big rose that eventually becomes a perfect simulacrum of a rose garden. Like smelling the roses through an open window then in the garden where you smell the sunny air and the green leaves and the earth. It’s not as photorealistic as something like a Chris Brosius scent and that’s fine. It’s just lovely, and that’s enough.

Lyublyu is another garden, this time in the South of France, where she visited her grandmother. It’s honeysuckle and jasmine and neroli. The initial opening is as big as C Love, this time with those big white flowers with a decent helping of that white flower rot that I loved so much in Fermez tes Yeux. (which is nowhere to be found and which I kick myself I didn’t hock a kidney to purchase) Luckily for most people that initial opening is brief and quickly becomes more incense and smoke and ends with a creamy sandalwood. I could use up the sample just replaying the opening. But if you lean in close even into the drydown that sly, very human scent of those innocent white flowers is there. A winner.

Natalie is the one that (clearly) she named after her mother and is based upon her mother’s favorite scent, gardenia. Many scents lean into the lush aspects of the flowers but this one starts surprisingly fresh and almost soapy. More like an old-fashioned men’s scent than what you think a gardenia scent would be. The gardenia doesn’t show up on me until well into the development. When it does it leans into the green and slightly earthy aspect of the flower rather than defaulting to coconutty lushness or Femme Fatale strength of something like Gardénia de Robert Piguet. Of the three it’s probably the most unisex and everyday wearable without triggering office bans.

Natalie Wood & Natasha Gregson Wagner in 1973

All of these three are clearly very personal and very well thought out, balancing memory and modernity very well. I know that there are people who are going to carp about a wealthy actress doing a scent line, but I am not one of them. Especially when they are this good, and especially when I spend most of a post mining my own paltry memories to pad out a review.

All of these are $175 for 50ML of EDP, which these days is almost free. I purchased my $30 sample set from their website.

Have you tried any of these? Interested? Let’s discuss in the comments.

Images: My iPhone, Pexels, Wikimedia Commons.